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The show's major innovation, however, isn't its format or guest list, but a moody visual style that gives a viewer the feeling of walking into a bewildering installation at the Whitney Museum's Biennial. Created and directed by the photographer Luca Babini (Hutton's boyfriend), the talk show looks like no other. It is filmed, not taped, and the camera sways back and forth, not only between Hutton and her guest, seated across from each other at a table dressed with a fruit bowl, but also to TV-screen images of them looking alternately fascinated and confused.
The jarring cinematography at least distracts from Hutton's childish interviewing. So far, she has demonstrated a knack for questions it would take whole university faculties to answer. To Kathleen Turner: "Tell me about motherhood." To Gabriel Byrne: "Tell me about love." To L.L. Cool J.: "Tell me about the start-up of rap in the black community." Her later, less competitive time periods may ease the pressure, but if Hutton wants to be a late-night combatant, a few tutoring sessions with Oprah might help.
--With reporting by William Tynan/New York